Jade Shamrocks: Friday - and I'm already babysitting!

Hello All -

Yup - we have made it through so far!! Check out our Miss Lily

But it is only day 4 and I am already babysitting so that Maryellen and Sheila could run to Walmart - Yup WALMART - They sell frogs and turtles there - Gives a whole new meaning to "Clean up in aisle 6"! Sorry I missed the adventure - But i made about 7 RMB for babysitting for 2 hours - it's the going rate - it equals about... lets just say 10 RMB is $1.25! You do the math! :) Maryellen can only afford babysitters here so she might start taking advantage of it!

So today were did some sightseeing in this cool Pagoda - It was built for entertainment - My kinda of place - then while there Maryellen and Lily were used as backdrops for many family photos - You think we look funny at home - you should see the crowd we draw here! We decided to get into the spirit of things and try blending - As you can see by the pictures - That didn't happen - Besides the fact that I look like a Abbott and Costello extra - We AGAIN drew quite a crowd!

There is a river outside our hotel - and there are many boats on it - working ones and house boats - They are something from a film set - they look so cool - When we went passed the Marina the other day it was cool to see all the boats docked with their China flags hanging on then - Just cool - - Again - this is a very different life style then at home - Today the local farmer brought his water buffalo up the river to graze on the grass in the river outside our hotel window - This was pretty wild to watch as we order in Pizza Hut Pizza to be delivered!! There are so many things to see that your brain can not take it all in - after a while you just kinda of shrug it off like "oh yeah - there's a monkey on a string doing flips outside the Walmart" and just go on with your day.

Tonight we went to dinner with 3 other familes - all very great families - Some so tired they couldn't tell you the day of the week. We went here tonight as we had tried it yesterday and liked it - Once you find something that you can identify and enjoy - you do it again and again - We had to bring a piece of paper with us and show it to the waitress - Our guide had to write down what we wanted - so just came in and handed over the list!! Can you imagine doing that at home - Just walk into your local restaurant and when they offer you a menu - You just hand them a list of what you want - and they do ity - HAPPILY?

Makes life very easy - (Yesterday it took Sheila and I six waiters to order a beer - We ended up showing them the table tent that had a beer logo on the bottom - they pointed to it on the menu - in Chinese and we said yes - I had no idea what it said - but we all nodded and ended up with a beer after some time and lots of smiles)- So dinner tonight was served on a lazy-susan - it had 6 or so entrees on it AND rice, soup, noodles and veggies. You spin it around and help yourself - we had soda and beer too - it was a big night out. When the bill came we split it by family - There were 4 of us and it was 50 RMB per family!! Yup - again $6.00 per FAMILY WITH TIP!!!!! If I keep up my babysitting - I can eat out quite often!

We have been blessed with Lily - she is such a good baby - THANK GOD!! Everyone thinks it's so great that we all get a long so well - But that is because we have a GOOD baby - if she was sick or a cryer - we'd have killed each other by now! So after Maryellen had to testify that she was "satisfied" with her daughter the other day - it looks like she is a keeper and as you can see by the picture she has picked me as her favorite Aunt